Water
by Thethuthinnang
Summary: BtVS.LotR. She dreamed of a boy drowning in his mother's arms. 1st in Water.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

She dreamed of water.

Her sleep was filled with blue. Above her was the gentler, dappled silver, the water skimmed with oars and feathers and silver fish that darted in and out of billows of light. Below her was the deeper, darker blue, cool and quiet, the weeds of the river bottom swaying in the current like a woman's dark hair.

She dreamed of the water holding her in its arms, of falling into those different blues and sinking into the quiet dark, bubbles of air rising from her still lips.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

"I'm having these weird dreams," said Buffy.

Giles paused in his…referencing. Or whatever other Watchery task he was currently engrossed in. "Prophetic?"

"Mmm, no," said Buffy. "More like just…weird. Like I'm swimming. Or sinking. Which, actually, is a pretty accurate summary of my life."

He peered at her. "You are underwater in your dreams?"

"Yeah, but for once nobody's choking me."

Giles frowned. "Well, tell me if they happen again."

Buffy nodded absently, but she wasn't paying attention. She was watching the dust motes drifting in a shaft of bright yellow sunlight, floating slowly in eddies through the air.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

She dreamed of falling.

There was a flash of light, of the sun in her eyes, and then a rocking of the world. She heard a man cry out overhead, and then a soft touch to her face and arms—a woman, throwing her arms about her.

A scream, a splash, and then the cold, shocking blue, and she sank without a whisper, without a ripple, and then she was sinking slowly into mud and nothing, the air trailing from her nose and mouth.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

Buffy meant to tell Giles. She really did. But somehow it just never come up, just sort of slipped through the cracks of the conversation like water trickling through a sieve, and the dream went unmentioned, the dream of falling and cries and a woman trying to hide her in her own arms.

Instead of telling Giles about the dream, Buffy spent the whole time watching her sister, studying the way the light played in Dawn's hair and face, how, at odd moments, the light seemed to not only fall on and light up her skin, but pass through, and trail phosphorescent in the air.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

She dreamed of reaching hands.

They were small, child-like hands. She dreamed them clutching at her through her hair, fingers wide and groping, pale and ghostly in the murky dark of the water. She watched them sinking through the silt and the weeds.

She dreamed of eyes, luminously blue, like no water ever was.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

"Are you OK?"

Buffy blinked. She looked up, and saw that everyone at the table was staring at her.

"You're spacing out there, B," said Faith. "You been sleeping?"

"What?" said Buffy, dazed. "Oh. Oh, no, I'm all right. I'm fine. I'm just tired."

A wrinkle formed in Giles's brow, like he half-remembered something, and his mouth moved as if he would speak. Then Xander threw the box of donuts at Andrew, several people groaned or exclaimed as powder and jelly scattered across the table, and the moment passed.

Buffy ignored her sister's worried look, and stared into nothing as she remembered eyes bluer than blue.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

She dreamed of a boy drowning in his mother's arms.

He was looking at her, eyes wide and blue in the dark water. She saw his hands, small and outstretched, his utter lack of fear. She felt him pull weighted fingers through her flowing, floating hair, and her own fingers tangled in soft black locks.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

Buffy woke up.

She lay shivering in her bed. The memory of black hair caught in the gentle, deeper spate of the flowing river made her close her eyes and shudder. She opened them again when all she could see was his huge blue eyes.

The air in her bedroom was cold and damp.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

She dreamed that she reached out and took in her hand a fistful of black hair.

With the other, she grasped his shirt. His mouth opened, all his breath drawn out in one great wave of froth, and she pulled so hard his eyes squeezed shut with pain. The arms around him, his mother's arms, fell away as she pulled the boy free from the drowned woman's arms.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

Buffy's eyelids twitched.

_"I don't understand—"_

_"—nothing is working—"_

_"—tried this?"_

_"We have to call a doctor—"_

_"Giles, look at her hands—"_

_"B! Come on, B, don't do this—!"_

_"Why won't she wake up?"_

_"Buffy. Buffy!"_


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

The river was deep, the current strong. She kicked as hard as she could and they inched toward the surface. She felt the boy dying in her arms, his lungs deflated and filling with water. She looked down, and saw their legs, hers struggling against the pull and his dangling, their feet huge and distorted in the weird light.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

_Buffy, please._

_C'mon, B. You can do this._

_Wake up._

_Buffy. Listen to me. Follow my voice. Let go of whatever's weighing you down and follow my voice._

_Let go, Buffy. Come back._

_Wake up._


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

Her grip on the boy tightened. He was nearly dead. But here the light was white and silver, streaked with gold and filled with the foam torn up by splashing hands and flailing ores, fishing nets cast into the river.

She felt the light on her face, felt a large, rough, searching hand brush her hair.

There was no air.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

_Buffy!_

_Buffy!_

_No, please…Buffy! Buffy!_

_Don't! Please!_

_Come back!_

_Wake up!_

_Buffy!_


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective creators, Joss Whedon and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author's Warning: major AU. Absolutely non-canon.

The hand in her hair clenched, and then it _pulled_.

Her head broke the surface. She gasped, choked, realized she was sobbing hysterically, her voice high-pitched and broken.

"A lass," a voice cried, a man's gravelly, fractured voice. "A lass, and the Baggins boy!"

They were lifted, her and the boy, lifted up out of the water and placed, dripping, on a grassy slope. She collapsed, every limb aching, and put her face in her hands, crying as if her heart was splitting open.

"Oh, lass," said another voice, a woman's, and a hand stroked her hair. "Lass, where are your parents? Were they in the boat?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, was racked with huge, shuddering sobs. A number of people, larger, men and women, crowded around them.

"No one else," a man's voice, older, cracked, was muttering. "No one else! The boat, lost! The Bagginses, gone!"

"Drowned," someone cried, "drowned!"

She forced her eyes open. The boy was lying in a wet, limp heap in the dirt. His skin was white, his huge blue eyes open wide and fixed on nothing.

Her breath came in quaking gulps. Something was strange—everything looked so big. The people, the adults around her, they were so much larger than she was; she was staring into their knees from where she sat. And her feet, large and hard-soled, bare of shoes, throbbed terribly.

Everyone was talking at once, moaning and wailing, but then she stood up and they stammered to a hush. She staggered over to where the boy lay, and, kneeling clumsily, felt his neck, his mouth.

"No," she was moaning, keening, "no, no, nooo..."

She was trying to stop crying, trying to make herself be quiet, but all she could do was clutch at his arms and weep, keening long and loud, and in her ears there was not the voice she expected to hear, her voice, but a child's uncontrollable howls.

Green water trickled from the boy's open mouth.

She rubbed her cheek against his shirt, soaked and clinging, and looked up at a man standing over them, gasping. His face, white with shock, filled her vision.

"Frodo," the man said, his voice stricken and shattered, staring down at the boy. "Oh, Frodo, lad…"

The boy, Frodo, lay very, very still, and she sat, her legs giving out from under her, and she huddled, shaking, blinking away the last of her disobedient tears.

"I tried to save him," she cried piteously. "I tried, I tried, he was just so heavy...the water was just so heavy..."

"Oh, poor lass," said a woman's voice, tremulous with grief. "Poor lad…"

A hand pulled at her arm. "Lass, come on, now, lass..."

She wept, flinging the hand away, but now there was more than one, they were pulling her away from Frodo, away from that small, still boy lying in the grass, and big hands and big arms lifted her up, held her against a broad chest in a hug that smelled like water and fish.

"Oh, my girl," a gruff voice said in her ear. "Oh, my girl, you tried, you tried..."

She howled when they put a cloth over the boy, when they straightened him out and closed his eyes and covered him up. She hushed when they bore the body away, going slack in the older man's arms, and then a woman, an older woman, came and stroked her hair.

"Lass, what's your name?" the man said into her ear. "What's your name, girl? Who're your people?"

She turned, numb, to look at the man, the woman, their kind faces swimming in the last of her disobedient tears. She opened her mouth, but hesitated, and, frowning, put one soft, child's finger to her mouth, as if trying to make it remember what it should say.

"Do you know your name?" the man said again, his face still the white of bone, his voice shaking with the boy's, Frodo's, silence.

"Don't know," she whispered, and laid her small, golden-haired head against his shoulder, her green eyes full of empty, staring blue.


End file.
